PORT ANGELES — If you give us the mandate, give us the money.
That was the message the City Council was trying to send to the state and federal governments Tuesday when it unanimously passed a resolution against unfunded mandates.
Those mandates, according to the council, are regulatory requirements imposed on the city that don’t come with sources of funding to cover their costs.
The resolution is symbolic, but City Council member Cherie Kidd, who proposed it, hopes the message is heard in Olympia and Washington, D.C.
Kidd said she will encourage other cities in the state, through the Association of Washington Cities, to pass similar measures.
“We are constantly bombarded with unfunded mandates just all the time,” she said at the meeting.
“It seems that it’s taxation without representation . . .”
That comment, Kidd said Wednesday, was directed at the agencies that enforce legislation, not the elected bodies that pass the laws.
She said those agencies are given too much leeway with interpreting what the laws mean for municipalities.
As examples of unfunded mandates, Kidd referred to requirements the city reduce its sewage overflows to no more than one per year on average at each of its four outfalls and prevent all pollutants, including car wash detergent, from its stormwater system.
The city’s effort to nearly reduce sewage overflows is expected to cost up to $42 million.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.